HKRFU Names Men’s and Women’s Sevens Squads

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) has
named the men’s and women’s sevens squads that will compete in
this weekend’s Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens and Hong Kong
Women’s Rugby Sevens.

This year the HKRFU Men’s Sevens team, as the
champion of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series, is competing in the HSBC
Sevens World Series (HSBC SWS) portion of the Hong Kong Sevens,
alongside the 15 core teams on the international circuit. Hong
Kong is grouped with Canada, Fiji and Spain in Pool D.

A separate 12-team tournament will take place
during the Hong Kong Sevens to determine four additional non-core
teams to advance to the final HSBC SWS qualifier at the London
Sevens in May.

Hong Kong has already booked its place for the
qualifier at Twickenham, where it will take part in an eight-team
tournament including the bottom three teams on the World Series
after the Glasgow Sevens. The prize on offer in London is a chance
to qualify for all ten events on next year’s HSBC SWS.

HKRFU Head of Performance and Coaching and
National Coach Dai Rees has shown faith in the side that won this
year’s HSBC Asian Sevens Series in Mumbai in October, and qualified
as one of the three Asian teams to take part in the Rugby World
Cup Sevens in Moscow in June.

Although Hong Kong has selected an experienced
side for next week’s tournament, four of the 12-man team will mark
their Hong Kong Sevens debut: Nick Hewson, Eni Gesinde, Cado Lee
and Ben Rimene.

Team mainstays Kwok Ka Chun, Anthony Haynes, Salom
Yiu Kam Shing and Alex and Tom McQueen have all made the final
selection and Rowan Varty, the team’s most experienced player with
seven Hong Kong Sevens appearances, will resume his captain’s role
for the squad.

“I am pleased that we could select a settled
team and maintain the team dynamic that took us to Asian number
one and the Rugby World Cup later this year. Our recent trip to
Zimbabwe helped us get back into sevens mode after the players had
a long layoff due to domestic rugby commitments. Now that we have
our 12 we can focus on maintaining the intensity of competition we
saw in Zimbabwe,” said Rees.

“Even I was surprised to see we had four players on
debut as they were all key players for us throughout last year’s
HSBC Asian Sevens Series. Last year Cado served as our team
liaison for the Hong Kong Sevens to give him a taste of the event
and the intensity of our preparations and now he has the
opportunity to run out with the team which is very exciting for
him,” Rees added. “Eni, who was formerly in the England Sevens
training squad, brings a unique skill set to our forwards. He
obviously has the physical attributes and height that are needed
at this level but he also has a good engine and makes an impact
when he comes on to the pitch ... Ben has done a great job this season and offers
vital depth at fly-half. Him and Jamie Hood have pushed each other
throughout the campaign, which helped us cover for the absence of
Keith Robertson ... Nick is a stalwart for Hong Kong rugby and I am
pleased that he is fit after he was injured shortly before last year’s tournament. He offers a lot of experience on the park and a
robust physical presence which will be important.”

Coach Rees also discussed his expectations for
the tournament saying, “As we have already qualified for the
London Sevens, we didn’t have too much pressure early on, but I
think that after the tournament draw expectations have been
raised. We are pooled with Canada, Fiji and Spain and both Canada
and Spain were in the qualification side of last year’s Hong Kong
Sevens, so being drawn with them has raised expectations on the
team to try and get a win or two in the pool stages.

“In any case, our goal remains the same. We want
to maximize the opportunity to play against the core sides ahead
of London and are aiming at finishing among the top 12 teams or
playing in any one of the finals on Sunday to get the maximum of
six matches under our belts from the coming weekend. That will
hold us in good stead for Twickenham and Moscow,” concluded Rees.

Hong Kong received an important fillip last week, winning the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee’s
Sports Stars Team Award for Team Only Sport for a third
consecutive year on Thursday evening.

Hong Kong Women’s Sevens
Squad

Hong
Kong is pooled alongside Canada and Japan for the 16th edition of
the women’s sevens. Coaches Kane Jury and Andy Yuen Kin-ho have
also kept their faith in the majority of last year’s squad with
just two players making their debut, Ivy Kwong and Melody Li.

Senior Women’s Coach Kane Jury said, “There is a
good balance in the squad and our preparations have gone as
planned. We are excited to have Melody and Ivy making their debut.
Having some young players in the squad helps add enthusiasm, which
is great to have as part of our training environment. All of the
members of the training squad did a great job to keep the more
established players on their toes as well.”